Is anyone else a little blown away by the fact that it is already Christmas week? Over these past weeks of Advent, that seemed to fly by so quickly, we focused on the idea of Emmanuel. God with us. And now, after weeks of anticipation, the time has come to celebrate the birth of Christ. Emmanuel. I have no doubt that this will be a busy week for you. But my earnest prayer for all of us is that we would not miss the beauty, power and importance of what we celebrate this week.
Please continue to keep in prayer those devastated by the tornadoes. For every connection card completed on Christmas Eve we will donate $1 to the relief efforts. (Photo by Chris Tammany, on-site)
Jesus was born into our world as a visible expression of God's great love for us. And I pray that this week we have the opportunity, take the time, to express our love to Him. On Christmas Eve we will have the opportunity to praise God and give thanks for the greatest gift this world has ever known. Last Christmas we were not able to gather indoors, so I am particularly excited that this year we will offer real, full, traditional Christmas Eve candlelight services at all locations. At our Plaistow campus we will have services at 3 and 5 pm. In Sandown, the service will be at 4 pm. And at our North Shore campus the service will be at 5 pm.
If you are not able to join us for one of our in-person services, I would invite you to worship with us online. We've significantly expanded our online Christmas Eve schedule. We will pre-record the online service so that we can offer it all day on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. The service will be offered on the hour, every hour, from 7 a.m. until midnight at our online platform at this link. The service will include the same beautiful Christmas music we will share at our in-person service and the same hope-filled message. If you are worshiping with us online, I would encourage you to have a candle ready for the lighting of the Christ Candle and individual candles for each person who is with you for the online service.
Traditionally, Christmas Eve is one of our best opportunities for invitation. It is a wonderful way to connect our unchurch friends and neighbors to the true meaning of Christmas and introduce them to our church family. I would still encourage you to invite guests to one of our in-person Christmas Eve services. But if they are unable to attend, or simply uncomfortable doing so in light of Covid, I would certainly encourage you to invite them to participate online. It could be a great first step.
After this very difficult year that we have all been through, I pray that you and your family would have a wonderful, blessed and joy-filled Christmas!
I love you all.
Pastor Steve